Also, breakfast carts coming to some schools

By JACQUELINE BOSTICK | The News Herald

Published: Thursday, August 29, 2013 at 07:54 PM.

The lanyards are kept in students’ classrooms and used during lunch, Harvey said. She said the students may start taking another barcode card home so during breakfast time lines can continue to move quickly.

Julio Narvaez, resident representative from food service company Chartwells, said the initiative also has started at Hiland Park Elementary and eventually all schools will have bar-coded cards — first elementary, then secondary.

“The response has been great (and) the speed of service has improved,” Narvaez said.

Narvaez said elementary kids typically are not reluctant to buy meals; however, older kids — mainly high school students — are not as swift to purchase them, so the food service company is working on expediting meals and making them readily available.

As a part of a state breakfast expansion initiative, several Bay district middle and high schools will receive a breakfast cart that will allow the students to purchase meals without the hassle of even walking to the cafeteria.

“It’s an extension of the cafeteria,” Narvaez said.

As “the students come off of the buses and into the school, we can offer the breakfast right then.”

PANAMA CITY — Little hands clutched bar-coded lunch cards that hung from lanyards around students’ necks Wednesday in the lunch line at Northside Elementary.

“Do it like this,” one child said to another.

“Like this, like this,” another said.

Food service company Chartwells is simplifying meal purchasing for students of all ages to compel students to purchase meals. Such an incentive is especially important as U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines call for healthier, unfamiliar flavors to take over at school districts that participate in the federal food program.

While getting used to the bar-coded lunch cards may be somewhat of an adventure for students, Northside principal Amy Harvey said the new method of purchasing meals has made lunch lines move quicker and purchasing meals easier.

On “the very first day of school, we typically have a line of kids backed up down this hall because the kids don’t know their lunch number yet, (but) the kids are moving straight through,” Harvey said. “I’ve been amazed at how quickly our lines are moving in the lunchroom.”

The lanyards are kept in students’ classrooms and used during lunch, Harvey said. She said the students may start taking another barcode card home so during breakfast time lines can continue to move quickly.

Julio Narvaez, resident representative from food service company Chartwells, said the initiative also has started at Hiland Park Elementary and eventually all schools will have bar-coded cards — first elementary, then secondary.

“The response has been great (and) the speed of service has improved,” Narvaez said.

Narvaez said elementary kids typically are not reluctant to buy meals; however, older kids — mainly high school students — are not as swift to purchase them, so the food service company is working on expediting meals and making them readily available.

As a part of a state breakfast expansion initiative, several Bay district middle and high schools will receive a breakfast cart that will allow the students to purchase meals without the hassle of even walking to the cafeteria.

“It’s an extension of the cafeteria,” Narvaez said.

As “the students come off of the buses and into the school, we can offer the breakfast right then.”

The carts, not yet available, were funded by a state grant. Bay was one of five school districts in the state to receive the grant.

“I think any time you do something with a new initiative it’s going to help sales, and that’s what Chartwells does, internationally,” Superintendent Bill Husfelt said. “I believe that they know what they’re doing and we think good things are going to continue to happen.”

The carts will be available at Mosley, Rutherford, Surfside, Bay, Everitt, Jenks, Mowat and Merritt Brown.

The grant also will fund a vending machine at Mosley that will dispense full meals to students. Narvaez said the vending machine will not require cash. Students will enter an ID number, make a selection — based on the healthy meal guidelines — and the meal will dispense.

“It’s another choice other than the cafeteria,” Narvaez said, noting USDA guidelines will be posted near the machine.

NOTE: Clicking on hashtags in this stream may result in seeing adult material, such as photos or foul language, that appear elsewhere on Twitter. We do not endorse such material, but we do not have control over what items can be found in hashtag searches.